A Raise is a Raise is a Raise? Or: An Introduction to the Wacky, Wonky World of Public Education Salaries

Over the past few weeks, as news of the troubled negotiations between the Alameda Unified School District and the Alameda Education Association (the teachers union) has been trickling (and sometimes exploding) out, I’ve been noticing a lot of confusion in public forums about the various kinds of, well, salary increases, that public education employees get.

There’s talk of “raises,” and “step-and-column,” “COLA” and “performance pay,” “bonuses” and “benefits.” And there are a whole lot of accusations about who’s getting what , when, and how, as well as who’s not getting what, and since when, and why that might be.

But what do all these terms mean? To straighten it out, I researched the kinds of salary increases public teachers get in California, as well as how they apply to AUSD. To make sure that I had my definitions straight, I had representatives from both AUSD and AEA review them. To round out my research further, I filed a Public Records Request for data on teacher salaries and step increases over the last year.

So herewith: “An Introduction to the Wacky, Wonky World of Public Education Salaries.”

Step and column: This is the basic salary schedule that governs teacher pay. The “step” refers to the number of years the employee has worked. The “column” refers to the amount of education the employee has.

You can think of it as a grid, where the Y axis is the years worked and the X axis is the number of extra educational units a teacher has. Looking at AUSD’s step and column schedule for teachers, you can see that teachers get a salary increases periodically. It’s not always every year — each teacher goes through periods where they plateau at a certain level – but the increases do come at regular intervals.

According to the data I received via the Public Records Request, about 52 percent of all existing AUSD teachers (i.e., not including brand new teachers) received a 2 to 3 percent step-and-column increase between last year (2010-2011) and this year (2011-2012). Eleven received a 4 percent increase; 10 received a 5 percent increase. (Just one received a 7 percent increase.) About 130 teachers did not receive step increases because they were on a plateau; another 55 did not because they were at the top of the pay scale.

Administrators in the district are also on a salary schedule, but that schedule has just “steps,” not “columns.” One other key difference: The superintendent and the four members of her executive cabinet only receive their step increases if they get a positive job evaluation. Teachers receive their step and column increases automatically.

Cost of Living Allowance: This is an increase in funding provided by the state. It is designed to cover increased costs due to inflation. In some school districts, the teacher contract specifically says that if the state grants a COLA, the teachers get a raise. The AUSD teacher contract does not say this, although AEA president Gray Harris says that if the state were to give public schools a COLA, the union would ask to bargain over it.

The state hasn’t given a COLA to public schools since 2007-2008. You can see a chart showing how this factor — which is just one of many factors — has affected public school funding in recent years here. (Go to page 5.)

Raises: Raises are a straight increase in salary. If you think of the automatic increases written into contracts as “steps” in a house, a raise essentially lifts the entire floor (and then the employee starts up new steps from there.) Raises have to be negotiated via a collective bargaining agreement. The AEA says that if a school district says it wants to give teachers a raise, however, the union can waive its right to collective bargaining.

Teachers in AUSD last received a true raise — as opposed to a step-and-column increase — in 2008.

Performance pay: Performance pay is a bonus given if teachers or administrators hit certain benchmarks in their work. Performance pay is controversial – many teacher unions don’t like it because factors outside of teacher’s control can affect a student’s performance – including the educational level achieved by the parents, stressors at home, and not being a native English speaker. But some education reformers see performance pay (or “merit pay”) as a way to motivate teachers to do a better job teaching and to reward those that excel.

When asked if the AEA would consider performance pay for teachers, Gray Harris, the union president said, “AEA would consider any way of increasing teacher compensation.”

Putting the Pieces Together

How does this all apply to AUSD? The contract approved by the Board of Education for Superintendent Vital was not actually a “raise.” Her base salary stayed the same (i.e., the “floor” was not lifted), but the board approved extending the original annual 3 percent step increase in her contract for another four years. Again this is the same kind of step schedule that teachers are on, although she will only receive those step increases if the board deems her job performance satisfactory.

The superintendent’s new contract also provides for $15,000 in performance pay if she hits three performance benchmarks ($5000.00 each) each year. And she was given full medical benefits for the duration of this contract to balance out the fact that, due to a misunderstanding, she received no medical benefits in her first three years on the job.

At the November 7th bargaining session, the AEA asked for something slightly different than the superintendent’s package: a 3 percent raise for each of the next three years (i.e., not a step and column increase and not based on a performance evaluation), plus full medical benefits. The district rejected that proposal, saying it could not afford the estimated $23 million that would cost over the next three years.

The two sides are scheduled to start bargaining on the teacher’s contract again in January.